'On Yer Tod' - Reflection 14th July 2024

At 8pm on Saturday 13^th July the St Austell, Athletic Running Club (STAARC) began a 24-hour run around a track at St Austell Cricket Club. Their aim was to raise funds for the Cornwall Air Ambulance. (A member of STAARC is one of the crew) Members of STAARC took one-hour slots.  The CAA is very close to Daniel’s heart and all the family, because if it wasn’t for the CAA Lowenna would not have made it to Bristol Children’s Hospital when she collapsed with a brain bleed.  Daniel picked up running with a passion a few years ago but has been badly hampered by asthma and other problems, some of them Covid related. As he knew I was down he invited me along to buddy up with him for an hour on Sunday, 5pm – 6pm. This worked out perfectly as it gave Daniel company, he pushed my pace on, and I pulled him back as it would only be natural for Daniel to try and run faster.  (They have gone over their £2,000 target and to date it is standing at £2,339)

In the morning, we attended Holy Trinity St Austell as they welcomed their new vicar, Jonathan Huff after a vacancy of several months.  

He preached on John 16.25-33. For me two things stood out. 

Verse 32 ‘” A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

This coupled with a question Jonathan put before us, ‘are you living for God or living with God.’ The emphasis being that we should seek to live with God. And therefore, if we are always living with God ‘we are never alone.’  

Jesus was in God and God was in Jesus. We read in 2 Corinthians 6: 18 “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

And in the concluding verses of Matthew, the Great Commision, 'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If we are ‘in Jesus,’ then we inextricably linked with God the Father. And we are never alone!

 I found it helpful to have a reminder of this ‘basic’ Christian teaching and in particular to continue to reflect and seek to live into the call to ‘live with God’ rather than living for God.

In Genesis 2: 18 we read ‘The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

This sets a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures.  We do however find ourselves at times ‘on our own’ because of various circumstances, getting older and bereavement is one of those. And we know that ‘loneliness’ is a real issue in the UK.  It is also something that some prisoners face as we see from time to time in our Prayer Line Request.

Two ‘takeaways’ – let us lean into and be grasped by a deep desire to live with God and know therefore that we are never alone.  Secondly, in the story of Adam, Eve was created as a companion.  May we be prepared to be the ‘presence of God’ in human form for someone who is alone.  That might mean running as buddy with someone for an hour, or perhaps something less physically demanding!

And by the way, you might search out the story behind 'on your tod' - which is rhyming slang for Tod Sloane, a 19th century American jockey who developed the short stirrups and the 'monkey crouch.'